SOLVED with Mark Manson

SOLVED with Mark Manson

New episodes every Wednesday. Mark Manson is a three-time #1 New York Times bestselling author and 20-year personal development industry veteran. Solved is the most comprehensive, evidence-based, overly-researched podcast on the planet to help you get an issue in your life, err... solved.

Episodes

May 6, 2026 138 mins
Here's the uncomfortable truth about anxiety: most of what people reach for to fix it was chosen because it feels easy, not because it works. The supplement that went viral on TikTok, the CBD gummy, the glass of wine after a hard week... they range from doing nothing to actively making things worse. We ranked 17 of the most popular anti-anxiety interventions from the absolute worst to the number one most effective, according to th...
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It's been one year of SOLVED. 20 episodes, 20 million downloads, 3 million YouTube subscribers, and a truly unreasonable number of poop jokes. To celebrate, I sat down with over 200 of your questions and picked the ones that hit the hardest. We get into why most people fail at quitting addictions (hint: the problem isn't the feelings, it's that you never planned for them). I explain why, if you have ADHD and can't stop procrastina...
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Nearly 60% of American workers are checked out at their jobs. Meanwhile, every graduation speech in history tells you to follow your passion and you'll never work a day in your life. So which is it? In this episode, Drew and I debate both sides. I argue for passion. He argues for practicality. And what we discover along the way is that the whole question is kind of a false dichotomy. We get into the psychology of harmonious vs. ob...
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So here's the thing about happiness: the harder you chase it, the faster it runs. That's not some bumper sticker wisdom. It's basically the core finding of decades of research. In this highlight, Drew and I get into the stuff from our original happiness episode that I think people need to hear the most. We talk about Schopenhauer's idea that happiness is less like finding a treasure and more like removing a rock from your shoe. We...
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April 1, 2026 130 mins
We pulled over 2,600 studies and ranked 19 of the most common self-improvement techniques across three dimensions: research quality, consistency of results, and actual effect size. Then we sorted them into four tiers: legitimately works, works sometimes, probably not helping, and straight up bullshit. Microdosing landed in the bullshit tier. Crystal healing outperformed several "serious" techniques. And the number one most effectiv...
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This book has sold over a hundred million copies, billionaires swear by it. But what if it's a lie? Does the effectiveness of the book change if we find out that the author is a huge scammer and quite possibly made up the whole story that spearheaded the book? Vote for Solved for Best Indie Podcast in the 2026 Webby Awards: https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2026/podcasts/features/best-indie-podcast For practical, scie...
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Meditation has been sold to us as a magic pill for so long that the backlash is almost as overblown as the hype. I spent years deep in Buddhist practice, went on retreats, meditated daily — and then slowly discovered that half the gurus evangelizing it were alcoholics, abusers, or running Rolls-Royce-funded cults. Here's what the more careful research actually shows: there are three things meditation does reliably well, and they’re...
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If you’ve ever felt stuck, or like you’re doing all the right things but something still feels off, there’s a good chance it’s a values problem. Not a discipline problem, not a productivity problem. A values problem. Most people have never actually sat down and figured out what they care about. Not really anyway. This clip is from our episode How to Find and Live By Your Values, which came out back in May 2025 and is honestly one ...
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March 4, 2026 199 mins
Focus is one of those things everyone swears they need more of and almost no one is actually addressing correctly. In this episode, we dig into what the science actually says about attention spans (hint: your brain isn't broken, it's just overwhelmed), why the standard advice to "try harder" is probably making things worse, and what's really driving your inability to sit down and get things done. We get into the neuroscience of exp...
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A Hungarian doctor discovered that handwashing saves lives, and was destroyed for proving it. Michael Jordan’s competitiveness made him a legend, then turned him into a prisoner of his own intensity. My ADHD nearly derailed my life and later became the foundation of my career. This video explores an uncomfortable truth: the traits that make you exceptional are often the same ones that create your biggest problems. The real question...
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February 18, 2026 101 mins
We put love on trial — literally. Drew and I squared off in a full debate over whether romantic love is overrated. I made the case that love is basically your brain's con man, a neurochemical hijacking designed to make you delusional about deeply flawed people, and that the most intoxicating relationships are often the most toxic. Drew fought back with the evidence that love is the foundation of social infrastructure, physical heal...
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This is a segment from the full episode on procrastination. Procrastination isn't a time management problem — it's an emotional regulation problem, and once you see that, everything changes. We break down how your brain uses avoidance as a mood-management strategy, why every philosopher from Plato to the Buddhists was partially right (but nobody had the full picture), and the specific internal and external levers you can pull to a...
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Most people aren’t bad at dating, they’re just trying to solve the wrong problem. We treat dating like a personality test (“Am I attractive enough? Confident enough?”) when it’s actually a multi-stage process, and each stage punishes completely different mistakes. That one misunderstanding explains why dating feels so confusing, why men and women keep blaming each other, why dating apps feel brutal, and why so much dating advice ma...
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Most people think ego is either something you need to kill off entirely or inflate to take over the world. Both are wrong. In this episode, we dig deep into what ego actually is—how it evolved, why it matters, and how it secretly runs your life without you realizing it. We hit Freud, Buddhism, David Hume, Jung’s shadow self, and even the Navy SEALs to unpack why your ego isn’t always the enemy—it’s mostly just misunderstood. Then ...
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This is probably the most comprehensive, no-BS breakdown of boundaries you're going to find anywhere. We cover what boundaries actually are (spoiler: it’s not just telling people to f*ck off), why they matter more than you think, and how your entire life—your relationships, mental health, identity, even career—is quietly shaped by whether or not you have them. By the end of this, you’ll know exactly how to set boundaries, how to e...
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This one’s different. In this special year-end episode, I answer your questions—from the deep stuff about purpose and motivation, to the uncomfortable realities of change, burnout, failure, and dealing with unsupportive family. I also share the behind-the-scenes chaos of building SOLVED this year, what I learned about making massive, meaningful content, and what’s coming in 2026 (spoiler: boundaries, ego, and maybe some live shows)...
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December 4, 2025 291 mins
This is the episode I’ve been waiting to make for a long time. Purpose has been at the core of everything I’ve written and done for over a decade—and in this episode, we go all the way down the rabbit hole. From Viktor Frankl surviving Auschwitz to the myth of “finding your one true purpose,” we break down what purpose really is, why you feel lost without it, and how you can build it into your life. We also get uncomfortable (in t...
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November 15, 2025 129 mins
We all compare ourselves to other people—our friends, coworkers, strangers on the internet—and most of the time, it makes us feel like shit. But why do we keep doing it? In this episode of Solved, we dig into the uncomfortable truth behind social comparison, how it quietly ruins our self-worth, and why most of what we envy in others is a projection of our own insecurity. We also get into the brutal paradox of success, the toxic ...
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November 1, 2025 286 mins
Friendship is the most important thing nobody talks about. From ancient philosophy to game theory, we break down why friendship isn’t just some social nicety—it’s a biological survival strategy. Plus: the modern forces slowly strangling our ability to connect, and exactly what to do about it. You’ll walk away with a clearer sense of what real friendship looks like, how to build it, and how to stop shooting yourself in the foot ever...
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October 15, 2025 179 mins
What does it actually mean to live like a Stoic? In this wide-ranging conversation with bestselling author and modern Stoicism evangelist Ryan Holiday, we unpack the origins of Stoic philosophy, why it exploded during turbulent times in ancient Greece and Rome, and how its principles—like courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom—still apply in a world filled with chaos, anxiety, and uncertainty. From shipwrecked merchants to empero...
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Mark as Played

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